Free Internet Press Newsletter - Sunday November 12 2006 - (813)

Sunday November 12 2006 edition
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Memorial Day: Bush Praises U.S. Troops For Their Bravery 2006-11-11 16:35:34 President Bush on Saturday hailed members of the armed services for their dedication and bravery and said American troops have helped the oppressed around the world. "They confront grave danger to defend the safety of the American people. They brought down tyrants. They've liberated two nations. They have helped bring freedom to more than 50 million people. Through their sacrifice, they're making this nation safer and more secure, and they are earning the proud title of veteran," the commander in chief said in a Veterans Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery. Bush did not mention Iraq and Afghanistan by name, though he did say, "From Valley Forge to Vietnam, from Kuwait to Kandahar, from Berlin to Baghdad, our veterans have borne the costs of America's wars, and they have stood watch over America's peace." Read The Full Story Entrepreneurs See A Web Guided By Common Sense 2006-11-11 16:34:34 >From the billions of documents that form the World Wide Web and the links that weave them together, computer scientists and a growing collection of start-up companies are finding new ways to mine human intelligence. Their goal is to add a layer of meaning on top of the existing Web that would make it less of a catalog and more of a guide - and even provide the foundation for systems that can reason in a human fashion. That level of artificial intelligence, with machines doing the thinking instead of simply following commands, has eluded researchers for more than half a century. Referred to as Web 3.0, the effort is in its infancy, and the very idea has given rise to skeptics who have called it an unobtainable vision, but the underlying technologies are rapidly gaining adherents, at big companies like I.B.M. and Google as well as small ones. Their projects often center on simple, practical uses, from producing vacation recommendations to predicting the next hit song. Read The Full Story Lebanon Talks Collapse As Shiite, Hezbollah Cabinet Ministers Resign 2006-11-11 16:32:43 Lebanon was thrown into a political crisis Saturday when talks broke down over giving the militant faction Hezbollah and its political allies greater control of the government. Almost immediately, cabinet ministers from the group and the other main Shiite party, resigned. Lebanon’s political leaders have held talks for four days, trying to defuse tensions among the various government factions after Hezbollah demanded a greater role in the cabinet and called for its alliance to have veto power over all government decisions. Hezbollah was politically emboldened after its 34-day war with Israel this summer, and it quickly pressed for more power. Though for days it appeared the talks were headed toward a compromise, the negotiations collapsed when Hezbollah refused to relinquish its demand for a veto, people in the talks said. When the governing coalition refused, the talks collapsed, and within three hours the political brinksmanship began with all of the Shiite ministers resigning. Read The Full Story Bomb Explodes In U.S. Restuarant In Jakarta, Indonesia 2006-11-11 16:31:25 A bomb exploded at an American fast food restaurant in the Indonesian capital on Saturday, wounding a man believed to have been carrying the device. The bomb shattered windows and chairs at the A&W restaurant in a shopping mall in east Jakarta, police spokesman Col. Ketut Untung Yoga told el-Shinta radio station. The mall is not popular with foreigners, and the motive for the attack was unclear. Read The Full Story	Typhoon Chebi, Packing 120 MPH Winds, Slams Philippines 2006-11-11 16:34:56 Powerful typhoon Chebi intensified Saturday as it slammed the northeastern Philippines, ripping roofs off buildings and downing power lines, said officials. Authorities urged residents to brace for possible floods and landslides as the second typhoon in as many weeks roared through rice-growing provinces of northern Luzon island. Forecasters said Typhoon Chebi gained power overnight and had sustained winds of 120 mph. Chebi made landfall in northeastern Aurora province early Saturday morning. It was forecast to move out into the South China Sea later in the day. Read The Full Story Flying For The Holidays? Don't Expect Your Bags To Arrive With You 2006-11-11 16:33:17 Since Aug. 10, when a ban on most carry-on liquids sent the amount of checked luggage soaring, airlines have been misplacing many more bags, and the fumbling could well escalate during the busy holiday travel season. The Transportation Department reported that 107,731 more fliers had their bags go missing in August than they did a year earlier, a 33 percent increase. It got worse in September, with 183,234 more passengers suffering mishandled bags than a year earlier, up 92 percent. Globally, about 30 million bags are mishandled each year, according to SITA, a company that sells software to airlines and airports for baggage and other systems. Airlines spend about $2.5 billion to find those bags and deliver them to waiting, often angry, passengers. All but about 200,000 bags are eventually reunited with their owners each year - a number that sounds pretty high on its own, but that represents less than 1 percent of the billions of bags that are checked annually. Read The Full Story U.S. Vetoes U.N. Security Council Resolution Assailing Israel For Attacks 2006-11-11 16:32:08 The United States vetoed a Security Council resolution on Saturday that condemned Israel for its military actions in Gaza and called for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area. The United States ambassador, John R. Bolton, told the Council that the resolution “does not display an even-handed characterization of the recent events in Gaza, nor does it advance the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace.” The resolution, introduced by Qatar, the Arab representative on the Council, had been amended during two days of negotiations to meet objections that it was not balanced, but Bolton said it remained “in many places biased against Israel and politically motivated.” In the vote, 4 countries abstained - Britain, Denmark, Japan and Slovakia - and 10 were in favor - Argentina, China, Congo, France, Ghana, Greece, Peru, Russia, Qatar and Tanzania. Read The Full Story
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